In Trinamool’s Haryana unit, an exodus of leaders

SummaryLess than five months after Mamata Banerjee launched the Haryana unit of Trinamool Congress amid much fanfare, there has been an exodus of party leaders, making the party’s local unit almost defunct.

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Less than five months after Mamata Banerjee launched the Haryana unit of Trinamool Congress amid much fanfare, there has been an exodus of party leaders, making the party’s local unit almost defunct. However, business tycoon Kanwar Deep Singh, who was made the party’s unit in-charge, seems unfazed and is preparing to revamp the unit by end of this year.

Ironically, those who left the party have blamed Singh for the unit’s “sad state” and have levelled all kinds of allegations starting from Singh’s “autocratic” style of functioning to fund embezzlement by him.

Singh seems to be alone in his endeavour as his deputy, Sunder Pal, too quit the party this week.

An unfazed Singh, while speaking to The Indian Express, termed the exodus of leaders as “good riddance”. “I myself created the circumstances that made these people leave, as they only been been a burden and the main obstruction in revamping the party,” Singh said.

Singh, a Rajya Sabha member, had appointed Sunder Pal as his deputy. “I made a wrong choice. There is a long list of former and present senior leaders of various parties who want to join the Trinamool but they were all reluctant to join us under the present set of leaders. Hence, we had no choice but to clean our slate before writing on it afresh,” Singh added.

He is planning to file a criminal defamation suit against his former party colleagues who have accused him of corruption. “They should first inform the sources from where they collected funds worth Rs 2.25 crore?” he added.

Problem in the party seemed to have been brewing for over a month after Singh developed serious differences with his party leaders, whom he had actually poached from other parties, especially the Congress. The party too, after organising a few rallies, remained almost silent and existed in press statements only.

Singh himself is new to politics. After being nominated by the Trinamool to the Rajya Sabha, Singh decided to launch the party’s unit in the northern region — his area of operation. But the experience seems to be going sour. He, however, seems optimistic. “After we rejuvenate the party by December end, we will organise a rally in Haryana — our focus state — in mid January. The rally will be our show of strength with many surprises by then,” said Singh.